By Arpan Sur, Senior Director, Marketing, Sub-Saharan Africa at Mondelēz International
As inflation continues its upward trajectory and household budgets are squeezed, snacks remain an essential part of food baskets. In fact, eight in ten South African consumers ensure that they always find room in their budget for snacks.
Despite the current tough economic environment, South African consumers continue to reach for snack products that give them a little boost or as a reward for a task well-completed. 75% of South Africans surveyed in the Mondelēz International State of Snacking Report believe that it’s now more important than ever to have moments of indulgence during the day.
Younger people, in particular, rely on snacks to help them take their mind off the issues of the world, and they are looking for more variety in their snack options.
The 2023 Mondelēz International State of Snacking Report for South Africa shows that while people want variety, they still won’t compromise on taste. 75% of consumers said they are excited when they find a new snack to try. The variety that younger people seek is tempered by their desire for quality and standards, while the older population return to the products they know and love because they know what they’re going to get. Younger people also snack more regularly than older consumers – driven by this desire to try new things – but also as a cost-effective way of boosting energy.
Brand Love
Trust, then, is essential – and brands which work hardest to gain and sustain trust are the ones with the best chance of succeeding. 66% of consumers who participated in the survey will go out of their way to find their favourite snack and 72% would pay extra to bring back some of their favourite childhood snack brands.
Mondelēz International is home to brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk, with a 200-year global heritage and more than 80 years of history in South Africa. Lunch Bar is a snack which stays with people for their entire lives – they first encountered it at an early age and it remains part of their snacking routine into adulthood. Nostalgia plays a powerful role in snacking and it’s something we continue to respect – many people will remember being rewarded with a Cadbury Dairy Milk slab when they achieved a milestone at school, for example and they carry that memory with them when seeking out a reward today.
Snacking in the Digital Age
We mustn’t discount the effects of moving into the digital age on the snacking world. Six in 10 South African consumers (63%) say they are more likely to find new snacks from digital channels than in-person ones. Digital channels are extending and enriching the snacking exploration process, with 92% of South African consumers having either bought or considering buying a snack in-store after seeing it online.
Marketing responsibly to consumers is important to Mondelēz International, across all our products, and we work hard to create different kinds of content that speaks to different consumers’ needs and wants.
For example, our award-winning Easter Cadbury Mzansi Hide campaign which ran between 15 March and 10 April this year invited consumers to create special memories by virtually hiding an iconic purple Cadbury Easter egg anywhere across South Africa for family and fellow chocolate lovers to find. It gave them the opportunity to seek out hiding spots that have significance, evoking wonderful memories of times spent together and letting the special people in their lives know they were thinking of them. Consumers who hid virtual eggs also stood the chance to win a fun-filled family experience voucher to the value of R50 000 and the opportunity to pay it forward by nominating a family they thought deserved a holiday too – and they could receive a similar travel experience voucher.
This is an excellent example of how the brand was able to integrate trust, loyalty and nostalgia with new, digital experiences for the whole family.
Stand by your Brand
Mondelēz International has a history of consistency and authenticity – from ‘A Glass and a Half’ to Lunch Bar’s ‘Much, Much More’ – and we’ve translated our brand promises into tangible actions in other spaces. Cadbury Dairy Milk has an ongoing project working to improve literacy levels across South Africa and Stimorol is identifying talented young musicians and helping to connect them with creative and business mentors to help them grow, as just two examples. It’s about giving back to communities in a socially meaningful way. When a brand genuinely cares about the people who care for it, consumers understand that they’re buying into something bigger than a snack.
Snacking Smarter
Understanding the provenance of products, the value chain which delivers them to you and their contents is also a growing trend amongst consumers who are increasingly wary of how what they put into their bodies affects themselves and their environment.
In the categories in which Mondelēz International operates, we provide treats and snacks that ultimately deliver feelings of joy and satisfaction – and we advocate that snacking should be done in moderation. We provide portion control packs that allow consumers to carefully measure out what they snack on – particularly important where parents are concerned as they regulate their children’s snacking. 55% of South Africans are tuning into portion sizes, saying they typically take time to portion out snacks before eating and 57% say they check nutrition labels on snacks before buying them and that doing so makes them feel like a more informed consumer (70%).
Snacking for Good
Sustainability is a global focus, but we’re finding that South African consumers are starting to make more conscious decisions about how sustainable the products and services they spend their money on are. This is especially prevalent among young people, who are more concerned with environmental and sustainable credentials than young people of 10 or 20 years ago were. 70% of respondents in our study said that sustainable packaging helps them enjoy their snack more and 84% wished that more snacks had biodegradable packaging.
Sustainability is one of our four core principles and we consciously plan every aspect of our products, building not just for today, but for the future. Many companies talk about this but show very little action, whereas we’ve been working for decades to secure our cocoa supplies and compensate farmers fairly for the quality products they deliver that help us maintain our high standards. Six in 10 consumers indicated that they would pay more for snacks that are better for the environment (63%) and for snacks that contain ethically sourced ingredients (64%).
There are plenty of aspects to consider when it comes to making snacking choices in the modern world and it’s essential that we continue to provide a blend of joy, satisfaction and indulgence in ways that match how our consumers think about their impact on the world they live in.
The future of snacking in South Africa is bright, when you consider the large – and still growing – population of young consumers who count on snacks to get them through tough times (71%), will always find room in their budget for snacks (85%), and are open to trying new snacks (71%). This presents an exciting opportunity for Mondelēz International to continue delivering products of high quality and trusted taste, while finding new ways to innovate and engage with consumers in the digital age.